WOMAN FATALLY STABBED AFTER REJECTING PROPOSAL

Beulah Elaine Hubbard and her boyfriend, Kent Eley, seemed happy enough Monday evening as they left her South Side apartment to go shopping at a nearby Goldblatt's Department Store.

In fact, when they returned, Eley, 32, asked his girlfriend, whom he had known since childhood, to marry him.

When she turned him down, the two became embroiled in a bitter dispute that ended when Eley allegedly stabbed Hubbard, 34, once in the chest with a 10-inch butcher knife, authorities said.

Hubbard was taken to Cook County Hospital where she was pronounced dead early Tuesday. Her death was the culmination of what a friend of the victim said was an often tempestuous relationship.

"There was an argument between the two, and it is the state's contention that he stabbed her without justification," said Wentworth Area Sgt. Stan Zaborac.

Eley, of 6430 S. Stony Island Ave., was charged Tuesday with murder, Zaborac said. He is being held at the Wentworth District lockup, authorities said.

Tanya Lillard, a close friend of Hubbard's for more than 20 years, said the couple had a stormy "on-again, off-again" relationship that often resulted in violence.

"She was scared of him," Lillard said.

Hubbard's mother, Betty Turner, agreed and said she feared for her daughter.

"He (Eley) would hit her," Turner said. "I've seen him do it. Once, I heard him tell her that if he couldn't have her, nobody could."

Zaborac said Eley was convicted of manslaughter in the 1980s.

Tuesday's stabbing occurred around 1:15 a.m. in Hubbard's second-floor apartment on East 47th Street. She shared the apartment with her three children, Roz, 6; Craig, 3, a foster child; and Kim, 1, according to Turner.

Chester Buford, whose apartment is directly above Hubbard's, said he was awakened early Tuesday by a loud thud and a male voice shouting profanities.

"He was doing a lot of cursing-that's what woke me up," Buford said. "Then I heard her say `Oh God, please don't hurt me.' She was begging for someone to help her. She was begging for her life."

Buford, who fought back tears as he talked about the stabbing, said he called the building security guard, who notified police. When police arrived, they found Eley standing over the body, authorities said. Nearby was Hubbard's youngest daughter, Kim, covered with blood, Buford said.

Cheri Harris, who lived across the hall and often baby-sat Hubbard's children, said she visited the victim's apartment hours before the stabbing and said the couple seemed to be happy.

"She asked me to watch the kids while they went shopping," Harris said. "When I left, they were in a perfectly good mood."

Hubbard, who walked with a cane after both legs were crushed when she was hit by a car in 1983, grew up on the city's South Side. She graduated from Dunn Elementary School where she was on the honor roll, and Corliss High School, Turner said.

Her accident left her disabled and unable to work, her mother said.

"She was a very dedicated mother," said Nellie Riley, a neighbor. "She would always walk the kids to the bus stop, even though it was difficult for her to walk and get around.

"She'd be there with them faithfully, no matter what the weather was like," Riley said.

Riley, who said she knew Hubbard for two years, said the victim was in the process of adopting 3-year-old Craig, who was left with her by a friend.

"Her heart was so pure that she accepted him," Riley said. "That's the kind of person she was."

Family and friends who gathered Tuesday outside the victim's apartment described her as a loving and generous person who took care of the people she loved.

"She would give people anything she had," her mother said, choking back tears, recalling that her daughter had drained her savings account to help pay her mother's telephone and light bills and mortgage.

"She was very kind to everybody," Harris said. "If there was something you wanted, she would give it to you."